Shyamalan, as usual functioning as writer, director and producer, plays on our expectations like a virtuoso while subverting them.
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07/29/04
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The Village (2004)
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Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:194
Fresh:82
Rotten:112
Average Rating:5.4/10
Consensus: The Village is appropriately creepy, but Shyamalan's signature twist ending disappoints.
Theatrical Release:Jul 30, 2004 Wide
Box Office: $114,170,863
Synopsis: M. Night Shyamalan's THE VILLAGE finds the renowned writer-director crafting a suspenseful story of a small community whose inhabitants are plagued by fear of the unknown forest that surrounds... [More]
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Bryce Dallas Howard, William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
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Reviews for The Village
Every village needs an idiot -- and M. Night Shyamalan is hoping it's you.
07/29/04
Shyamalan's least satisfying post-Sixth Sense effort.
07/29/04
Top CriticThough it's not as contrived as 2000's Unbreakable, The Village disappoints.
07/29/04
It's being sold as a massively scary movie, but all that's really scary is that a talented cast -- which also includes Judy Greer, Brendan Gleeson and Adrien Brody -- could be lulled into thinking Shyamalan's script was anything but obvious nonsense.
07/29/04
Comes close to matching the intensity and surprise of Shyamalan's biggest hit, The Sixth Sense.
07/29/04
Top CriticEven if The Village is one of his lesser works that, like 2002's Signs, doesn't stick to the ribs, it still gets the wheels spinning in one's mind.
07/29/04
The Village pours on creepy atmosphere, but this dud is too intent on delivering its liberal 'message' to actually deliver the kinds of scares it promises in the terrific trailer.
07/29/04
Top CriticThe Village is Shyamalan's weakest story.
07/29/04
Top Critic[Shyamalan] hasn't lost his eye as a director, but the story is a mess, boring at first and then becoming progressively sillier until it loses complete credibility.
07/29/04
A sometimes engrossing shocker with a surprise ending that isn't especially shocking or surprising.
07/29/04
Top CriticShyamalan's films have become life support systems for his twists.
07/29/04
The Village pales next to the crackerjack ghost story of The Sixth Sense but excels far beyond the psychobabbling in Unbreakable.
07/29/04
Top CriticAs a failure, The Village is certainly interesting, but a failure it stubbornly remains.
07/29/04
For my money, this undeniably talented writer-director has been repeating himself with steadily decreasing potency ever since the wonderful The Sixth Sense, and his latest excursion does nothing to buck the trend.
07/28/04
Significant and unforgettable.
07/28/04
Literate and visually expressive.
07/28/04
Top CriticIn crafting a film about the ways fear can manipulate -- are there really creatures of mass destruction in the woods? -- Shyamalan gives the film a metaphorical weight that goes deeper than goose bumps.
07/28/04
Top CriticWhat really lurks within those woods is (fear not: no spoilers here) a very mixed bag.
07/28/04
Shyamalan surpasses his best to deliver an utterly accessible and totally enthralling film, one of the most original works to hit the big screen in recent years.
07/25/04
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